Wednesday, September 30, 2009

We had just returned from Peri's ballet class and the girls insisted we get the mail before going inside. It's a daily ritual and each girl claims a colorful piece of junk mail that will soon be recycled.

Peri set hers on the table and as Jim and I sat down to eat, he glanced at it and said, "What's this?" Then he started to chuckle. It was addressed to me: United States District Court. GAH!! Dagnabit! Not just a County Court, oh no, Federal, this time around. I was summoned a couple of years ago to the County Court and fortunately, after calling the night before, my number was not included in the list of people who actually had to show up. Dodged that bullet, but it doesn't look like I'll be as lucky this time.

Yet again I'm kicking myself for registering to vote. The reason I hadn't registered in the past is because I never wanted to be called to jury duty (and let's face it, you're always voting for the lesser of two evils anyway), then I was misinformed that registering to vote had nothing to do with being called for jury duty. Um, yeah, not true because I've been called twice since then and in the first letter, it informed me that my name was chosen using DMV along with Voter Registration Records. Damn.

I'm not interested in politics and local government; it's the only class in college that I got a C in, and that was by the skin of my teeth. Thank goodness for essay homework to offset the F's from the quizzes. Yes, I understand it's my civic duty, but it doesn't mean that I have to like it. On the one hand, I've always been curious about what serving on an actual jury during a trial would be like, but the "I just want to congratulate you again on being selected" at the end of my letter, is going a little overboard and somehow mocks my pain.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Sorry, I've been m.i.a lately. Or maybe you didn't even notice; yikes! :oP Lots has been going on lately. Last weekend I did a craft booth at the local farmers market, last Monday we had to put our dear Lhasa Apso down and this weekend is my daughter's 5th birthday party. Just a tad overwhelmed.

The Good News....The booth went pretty well. I only sold about half of my booth fee, but that's better than nothing and it was well received which gives me the confidence to do it again. I believe in the power of three: people see you the first time, recognize you the second and buy from you the third. I think people are leery of vendors that are here and gone but unfortunately, I was unable to do three weekends in a row. Hopefully this fall/winter I'll be able to do it. I was also approached about doing a bazaar at a local elementary school in November. Sounds perfect! We'll see how that pans out. But check out my booth, pretty cute. :o)

I wish you could see my banner a little better (too much glare from the sun/camera). It turned out really nice and I highly recommend the shop who made it for me: WilsonGraphics

The Bad News....For some strange, flukey reason, our Lhasa Apso, Charlie, got a ruptured disc in his neck which occurred about two weeks ago. This ended up pinching his spinal cord and leaving all four of his legs paralyzed.We adopted Charlie from the local humane society about 4 years ago. He was 2 years old at the time and we found out he had a grade 6 heart mumur. That's as bad as it gets and the vet was surprised that he was even still alive. We came to an arrangement with the humane society that we would keep Charlie for as long as he had so that they wouldn't have to put him down because they couldn't legally adopt him out. He continued to surprise us year after year with his puppy-like energy and you'd never have known he was even terminal.Due to his heart condition, and the few thousand dollar non-guarantee surgery option, we made the painful choice to put him down, but not before spending the weekend showering him with love and affection. His body gave out, but his heart never did. We'll miss him.

The Sanity Saving News....Two stressful things and I desperately needed an escape, enter my daughter's 5th birthday party. As I had mentioned on Monday, I'm throwing Peri a Mad Hatter Tea Party. All of her friends, from preschool, will come dressed in their favorite princess outfits and Peri will be dressed as Alice. I'm transforming my house into a Wonderland and it's been a fabulous distraction. I really needed something to take my mind off of everything else. It's been a lot of fun though and I'm anxious to share the final result once the party is over. I'll be posting on The Mama Dramalogues several how-to's and sharing my tips and ideas for throwing a really fun tea party on a budget. So stay tuned!